objective:to investigate the relationship between tumor necrosis factor-β(tnf-β) rs1041981 gene polymorphisms and coronary artery disease(cad) in nanjing city. methods:a case-control study comprising 399 patients with cad and 280 controls was performed. single nucleotide polymorphisms of rs1041981 in tnf-β gene were genotyped and analyzed using the high-flux taqman probe technology coupled with fluorescent quantitative pcr method. results:the frequencies of the cc, ca, and aa genotypes of rs1041981 were 25.1%, 50.3% and 24.6% in cad group and were 41.1%,41.8% and 17.1% in control group respectively. there were statistically significant differences in the distributions of the genotypes (χ2=20.1,p < 0.05). the risk of cad in those of ca and aa genotypes was 1.38 times of cc genotype(or=1.38,95%ci:0.84~2.05). the serum tnf-β and high sensitive c-reactive protein levels of the cad group were significantly higher than that of the control group(p < 0.05).conclusion:the single nucleotide polymorphism (snp) of rs1041981 in tnf-β gene is associated with cad in nanjing area and the allele a may be a risk factor of cad.